CHAPTER V. 



THE BILE (continued). 



SECT. 1. RECAPITULATION OF THE FACTS RELATING TO THE 

 ORIGIN OF THE SPECIFIC CONSTITUENTS OF THE BILE. 



IN the preceding chapter, the subject of this section has been 

 more than once referred to. It appears advisable, however, in this 

 place, briefly, but systematically, to refer to the different facts which 

 throw light on the probable antecedents of the specific constituents 

 of the bile. 



The origin of The glycocine and taurine of the conjugated bile 

 the bile acids. ac ^ s ar6j w ithout doubt, derived from the albuminous 

 or albuminoid principles of the economy. Glycocine we have seen to 

 be one of the products of the decomposition of gelatine, when this 

 body is subjected to long boiling with acids, or to the digestive action 

 of trypsin. Taurine, although it has not been artificially obtained 

 by the decomposition of proteids is, as its high percentage (14*6 pj) 

 of sulphur indicates, certainly derived from them in the body. The 

 taurine and the glycocine of the bile, however, only contain a small 

 fraction of the sulphur and of the nitrogen corresponding to the 

 decomposition of the proteids in the economy. "If the bile were an 

 excretion like urine, we should expect to find the quantity of nitrogen 

 and sulphur in the bile varying proportionally with the amount of 

 proteid decomposed in the body. As a matter of fact, this is not the 

 case. We know from the researches of Kunkel 1 and Spiro 2 , conducted 

 on dogs with biliary fistulse, that only a small part of the sulphur and 

 nitrogen resulting from proteid metabolism appears in the bile, and 

 that it is but very slightly increased by a larger supply of food. 

 When the amount of albumin allowed the dog was multiplied eight- 

 fold, the nitrogen and sulphur of the bile were only doubled 3 ." 



1 Kunkel, ' Untersuchungen iiber den Stoffwechsel in der Leber.' Pfliiger's Archiv, 

 Vol. xiv. (1876), p. 344. 



2 Spiro, ' Ueber die Gallenbildung beim Hunde.' Du Bois Reymond's Archiv, 1880. 

 Suppl. p. 50. 



3 Bunge, Physiological and Pathological Chemistry. Woolridge's Translation, Vol. i. 

 p. 214. 





